It makes sense, the fans are kind of just cheering for the lucky bounces or instances when the pinnacle of skill break through and make something happen.

I bet the same is true for racing across the board. Frenzy on lap one, hold through mid-race and see what everyone else does, final push with 5 to go. This is essentially true for every race under 4 hours, be it F1, Tudor, or NASCAR. LeMans/Sebring/D24 are a totally different thing.

Baseball and Cricket don't really fit the mold with innings and all, and the ability to field eleventybillion relievers in every game in baseball.

F1 Racing did a study about six or seven season ago that examined overtaking in F1. They excluded all opening lap changes of position and all order changes owing to pit strategies, retirements or other mechanical failures and driver errors. They found the average race had like 5 legit overtakes.

I was never a fan of KERS/DRS. Always felt gimmicky like P2P in Indy. I kind of understand KERS, because it's a very faint grasp at justifying racing 22 cars for 2 hours at full bore as being environmentally friendly because they happen to recycle a little bit of energy.